Professor Kahn is a biochemist who teaches, advises students and does both fundamental and applied research. The fundamental research concerns the interactions of enzymes with other molecules such as their substrates, toxins, drugs and the water inside cells. His practical work in the past included measuring dioxin in Vietnam veterans as an indicator of past exposure to Agent Orange. He is presently working to develop an enzyme, cellulase, which can convert cellulose to glucose and "oligosaccharides." The glucose can be fermented to make ethanol fuel, and the oligosaccharides can be used to make plastics. 

Professor Kahn has lived and worked in Nigeria, France and Finland. Since 1995 he has been bringing students from Bosnia and the rest of the former Yugoslavia to study at Rutgers.